Professor Faier's voice stressed many people that I know didn't return after the first class (you'll notice what I'm talking about when you attend ONE lecture).

She is very nice and wants (or maybe not) to have a class with good grades.

She explains every concept well and is often very repetitive

She assigns a lot of readings each week but its important to do them since they give you more insight to what authors are talking and BELIEVE ME will make your midterm/final responses easier.

Exams are a LOT of writing, final was 14 pages long. For every answer, GIVE EXAMPLES AND NAMES OF AUTHORS that will help a LOT.

People do bad in the midterm and from their mistakes and by learning how to develop a good answer, magically they do better in the final so their grades go up.

Discussions are EXTREMELEY long. Its a 2 hour discussion so its LITERALLY death. TA's dont know what else to do in the 2 hours so people stress out a LOT in them. However, TA's repeat what professor says in other words so its important to listen to that.

For exams, she gives a list of 20-30 concepts to memorize but ONLY MEMORIZE THEM, don't memorize other concepts that you believe are important: professor faier thinks theyr'e not.

I would personally reccomend to look for the other GE alternative that is Anthro 9 (cultural anthropology) and find if there's a better professor.

The material in the class is fairly interesting, although if you're a south campus major taking this as a GE, the lack of concreteness will leave you very frustrated due to much of the pseudo-abstract BS that shows up a good majority of the time.

However luckily, tests are not designed on YOUR understanding of the material but the author's arguments present in your course reader. You need to know definitions and such of topics present on the study guide she gives you before both tests, as well as what each MAJOR article/film discussed. Essays are very much comparing and applying the author's arguments to certain situations.

Discussions are an awful, mandatory 2 hours, and depending on your TA, even the TA can get very bored as well. However, it is always a good time to discuss concepts and get an understanding for HOW the professor wants you to understand certain concepts.

Overall the class is very annoying due to the material taught and the amount of readings but easy once you know what they expect for tests. I would recommend going to a testbank and looking at a couple exams and see what each person missed etc. The final is very much the midterm but just double in length.

I found this class a bit tough because it can get quite heavy on the readings at times. However, the class is very interesting and definitely worth taking! The professor and TAs are very helpful in clarifying the topic. Exams are comprised of short and long answers and are heavily based on the readings. Discussions help prepare you for them!

Professor Faier is AMAZING! I've taken three classes with her (which I'm pretty sure are the only three she offers) and I've loved all of them.

There is a course reader required, and readings can be pretty heavy (amount and lengths) but she synthesizes them very well in lecture. I would still recommend doing the readings (or at least skimming them) because the tests are short answer and essay questions and Faier herself is a pretty tough grader, therefore, her TAs are tough.

Faier is super helpful during office hours - my only complaint there is they are not walk in. She makes you sign up and they can get filled up really quickly.

Overall, Professor Faier was very knowledgeable on the topic, and gave interesting lectures. There was a good deal of reading in the class, and the tests (short and long answer) were graded relatively hard. It was still an engaging class, and I would definitely take it again.

Interesting class. There is a lot of reading but most of them are good reads. Reading and attending lecture is highly recommended in order to do well in this class.

Selling both course readers for $45 (text **********)

The class itself was quite interesting, however keeping up with readings is necessary in order for you to understand the class. Exams are composed of a few ID questions and timed essay questions. TAs strongly encourage active participation in class for students to earn participation points.

I am selling both of my textbooks for $60
The main course reader is used and they are highlighted (which means you can skimm through the highlighted parts lol), the other lighter one is almost new.

This class was great! Professor Faier is amazing. With that being said you have to do the readings for the class. The reading material is essentially the class. However if you keep up with the readings and pay attention to the connections professor Faier makes during lecture, you will do great. Both the midterm and final are timed written essays, and are based off of the readings.
Best class I've taken at UCLA!!

This was one of the best classes I've ever taken at UCLA. Prof. Faier was engaging in class and the readings are really not that bad. I feel like the other reviewers must have been slow readers because they never took me that long. Both midterms were ridiculously easy and the writing assignments every other week took me 2 hours MAX. Such an easy yet rewarding class. Everything you learn is real-life applicable. Got an A with a fair amount of work put in, but that is only because I thoroughly enjoyed the material.

Overall a pretty easy GE. There is a LOT of reading, and you do need to read at least some of it, but if you pay attention in discussion you can probably get by just skimming or reading the summary passages at the end of each work. Midterm and final is a lot of writing, but it seems to be graded pretty easily.